Italy With Kids, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Lots of useful hints
Review: As other reviews have stated, this book is far from perfect. But I bought it as soon as I read the art-gallery hint (take crayons and paper). We just got back from a Picasso museum, and our 6-year-old was begging for freedom even though she learned about Picasso in kindergarten. The crayons would have been a lifesaver.

On the upside, the authors understand what kids like and need, and give good hints on things they will like. On the downside, they don't seem to be the brightest bulbs on the planet (the book is filled with howlers like "wet your appetite" and "taxi cues"). They also seem to have a heck of a lot more money than I do (and I'm far from poor). Their idea of an inexpensive hotel is 95 Euros a night for a double (and the kids are extra!). That's my idea of splurging. I shudder every time they tell me that a particular cafe is "a bit pricey, but a good place to relax". I translate that to "lunch will cost more than you ought to be spending on a room."

The second edition also suffers from sloppy proofreading. There are lots of places where prices are still given in lira. The Euro has been around long enough now that I have no clue what 5,000 lira would equate to.

Even so, I'm glad I bought the book. I'll be able to sit down with my daughter and plan the trip together, and that alone is worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Not very good
Review: I bought this book prior to a trip to Italy with my 3-year-old son and was highly disappointed. The authors stick to only the most obvious siteseeing destinations and didn't provide the nitty gritty that a traveler with children really needs. For example, the chaper on Venice of course describes St. Marks, but makes no mention of the playground right near the train station. The Milan chapter mentions "The Last Supper" but overlooks a park we discovered that has a collection of dinosaur statues and a carousel.

Another major omission: the authors made no mention of the fact that many youth hostels offer accommodations for families, and the YH in Verona was a real gem -- gorgeous grounds to run around on, a spacious room, and cheap meals. It was also about one block away from a playground. None of the accommodations listings mention the hostel option.

Bring Lonely Planet and leave this book behind -- the luggage space is better used by a spare coloring book or toy.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste valuable suitcase space with this book.
Review: I bought this book prior to a trip to Italy with my 3-year-old son and was highly disappointed. The authors stick to only the most obvious siteseeing destinations and didn't provide the nitty gritty that a traveler with children really needs. For example, the chaper on Venice of course describes St. Marks, but makes no mention of the playground right near the train station. The Milan chapter mentions "The Last Supper" but overlooks a park we discovered that has a collection of dinosaur statues and a carousel.

Another major omission: the authors made no mention of the fact that many youth hostels offer accommodations for families, and the YH in Verona was a real gem -- gorgeous grounds to run around on, a spacious room, and cheap meals. It was also about one block away from a playground. None of the accommodations listings mention the hostel option.

Bring Lonely Planet and leave this book behind -- the luggage space is better used by a spare coloring book or toy.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Go to Italy with Kids Without This Book!
Review: Thank you, Barbara and Michael Pape, for doing the research and sharing your insights in this book that was constantly at my side during our recent trip. We read, and carried along, a few of the best guidebooks recommended, but Italy with Kids is the one that was the most helpful. Without repeating the well-deserved praise heaped on this book by a previous reviewer, I want to add some comments from our own experience:

First, the book reveals information about many places and activities that we would never have found on our own. For example, instead of carting the kids through Milan, we chose instead to visit Vinci based on the authors' discussion of this tiny town nestled in Tuscany where da Vinci was raised. Our visit to the Museo de Leonardino in Vinci which is housed in an old castle, was enchanting to the kids who could come up very close to many of da Vinci's inventions and notes. The museum was small, extremely child-friendly, and best of all - uncrowded (and for Italy in June that is rare indeed).

There are numerous other examples like this, and the section on Tuscany where we were based for much of our trip is outstanding. What other book mentions Snoopy's, a terrific gelateria in Cortona? Our 7-year-old had the important task of "rating" the gelatos we tasted in Italy, and found this one among his favorites. The book mentions the best gelato shops in many towns, a welcome treat after a day of sight-seeing and hiking up and down the steep streets. Unlike many other guidebooks, such small details as Pinky the cat who resides in the Fortress at Sirmione on Lake Garda were mentioned, and really drew the kids' attention. Of course, as soon as we arrived at the entrance, they asked where Pinky could be found and spent a good part of this visit entertaining the good-tempered feline, allowing us to spend some time enjoying the views and reflecting on the history of this intriguing fortress. In fact, I doubt whether we would have spent time at Garda at all if we hadn't read the book, heading instead for the more popular Lake Como on which most other guidebooks focus. Just as the Papes' noted, we were among the only American tourists in Sirmione, and we enjoyed several days with Italian, German and other European families. As for Hotel Sirmione, suggested by the authors, it went beyond our expectations. Ever swam in a 80+ degree mineral swimming pool, surrounded on three sides by a mountain lake? Other accommodation and restaurant recommendations were also excellent. What the book says is exactly what you will find, and its descriptions go well beyond what other guidebooks typically provide.

In summary, this book is an outstanding resource for anyone traveling with kids...or who is a kid at heart. I am now waiting for books to be written on traveling with kids to other European countries. They will have a tough act to follow.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Start
Review: There aren't a lot of books available about traveling in Europe with children, so I snapped this one up awhen I saw it. It has helpful information and good tips, but I was hoping for more. I found it lacking in giving specific activities that would interest children in given cities. The list of suggested book for kids was excellent, however. This book is a good start if you're heading to Italy with your children, but it won't be the only homework you'll need to do.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Traveling with Children
Review: This book was quite helpful to us in our trip to Northern Italy. All the restaurant suggested turned out well and the book gave us some great ideas of things to do with the kids. It is probably more useful with children 10 and under than for older kids although some of it is still applicable.

Rating:
Summary: Italy with Kids
Review: Using this guidebook, I think you'll have a trip memorable not only for the tips that allowed you to enjoy your own travel, but also as a journey that became that much more interesting because you had the little ones along. Enough of the poetic antipasto, let's tuck in.

The book was written by two obvious parents; they refer to their children throughout the book and include their kids' comments and suggestions. A couple of parenting examples: whilst Mom and Dad gazed upward at the Sistine Chapel ceiling, it was their daughter who pointed out the work of art in itself that was inlaid in the floor (intarsia).

Suggestions on places to stay include the needed price ranges and contact info, but also note which hotels are near noisy piazzas, which have laundry service (the three coins in the coin washer joke will get old fast), which offer a non-smoking room (rare) and which seemed to welcome children instead of merely tolerating them along with the pets and soccer louts.

The book includes the usual and useful staples of suggested web sites, lists of Italian foods with their real names and a brief description (helpful to plan ahead for picky eaters), Italian travel promotion office addresses, the entire history of Rome in eight pages and couple of pages of Italian phrases.

Bless the authors for their phrase section, for instead of the usual junky words ("Benito, your swift motorcycle has crushed my foot"), you get stuff like "Do you sell diapers?", "We need a babysitter", "My child is allergic to penicillin" and other things of use to us parents. The suggested reading lists include one just for kids, singling out some picture books for the youngest travelers.

My favorite travel tips in the book relate to helping kids weather art galleries: for older children, bring a pencil and sketchbook, and have your heirs join the art students sitting on the floor drawing "notes" while gazing at the best thing oil and paper can do outside of a super-sized McFries.

For younger children, buy postcards or an exhibition catalog on the way into the museum, and task the tykes with finding in the book the art you happen to be gazing at. We tried this with our five year old and it actually worked, though we did have to improvise a bit when she got bored and offer the promise of extra dessert if she could keep finding the stuff until 4 PM.

The book not surprisingly places great emphasis on Rome, but you also get individual chapters titled Venice with Kids, Verona with Kids, Florence and Tuscany with Kids, Naples and the Amalfi Coast with Kids and Milan and the Lake Region with Kids.

Each of these chapters include sections on how to get there, where to stay (with price ranges), places to eat (annotated to note places especially nice to kids), a splash of history and of course, pages of things to see and do. Each of these chapters can stand alone as its own mini-guide book.

Ah, but then there is Rome.

With a nod toward at least getting you close to the romance and magic we all die for from a thousand movies, the focus is squarely on enjoying the city with your kids. You get advice on transport (subway: YES, with details on navigating the ticketing system, walking: YES, buses: SORT OF, driving: NO).

There are many references to gelato, as well as tips (order inside at a café, cheaper than ordering outside at a table). Suggested tours are narrated in a way that makes both good armchair reading as well as useful prose to read aloud as you visit places.

Little touches-look out for cats at the Coliseum, mail postcards home from the efficient Vatican post office instead of the creaky Italian one-enliven the whole text. One suggested itinerary in Venice begins "sip cappuccino at one of the cafes while the kids entertain themselves by feeding the pigeons."

The moment of truth here is that this is a great guidebook, witty, useful and, best of all, written by parents who walked the same streets as did the Caesars and soon, maybe you. If you aren't willing to take me along with you to Italy, go ahead and take this book instead.

Rating:
Summary: Not very good
Review: We own every European travel book that exists. I can honestly say that this one is by far the worst one I have seen, hands down. The coverage of accommodations is sparse and only includes extraordinarily expensive hotels, for the most part, and the dining recommendations are little better. There are no unique tips in this guide and it really covers 6 cities, and not very comprehensively. I give an extra star for making the attempt to write a kids travel guide, since they are not common.